Tuesday, September 13, 2005

1. What member of the mainstream sports media (preferably one who covers college sports) makes your skin crawl, blood boil, forces you to change the channel or hit mute? Why?

The only guy who has actually ever forced me to mute him during a game is Bill Walton, and SAS is an instant channel-change. Those guys do the NBA, though. I have a good local answer: Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp, who is one of those Finebaum guys. He spends 95% of his columns calling people losers and chokers and then puts on a sunny face when someone does something good. He's so malignant that his coverage of Michigan Statepisses me off, which I think sums it up nicely. But no one knows who he is.

So the official BlogPoll answer is ABC studio "analyst" Aaron Taylor, who

looks like a big, dumb version of Dr. Evil

talks only out of one side of his mouth, the other portion of his face frozen in a rictus reminscent of a stroke victim's

speaks only in idiotic platitudes about wanting it more and heart and blah blah blah.

No, ND flamers no doubt still lurking about, it has nothing to do with his alma mater.

The thing is, Craig James is almost bad and I loathed Terry Bowden when he was the ABC studio guy even though EDSBS thinks somewhat highly of him and his intelligence. ABC probably prefers the dumbest sentiments possible for its halftime show to drag in all the Rome mouthbreathers. The difference between Taylor and the rest is that it's possible to believe the others have a spark of intelligence lurking somewhere beneath the surface.

Also--and this is hard to articulate properly--his eyebrows drive me freakin' insane. I realize this makes no sense.

2. What writer, broadcaster, show, website etc. deserves more recognition? Who is someone we should all be reading, watching or listening to?

Football Outsiders. The closest thing to Bill James in the football world, their NFL stats are revolutionary, smart, and revealing. I eagerly await some sort of collegiate equivalent, and may attempt to create one in the offseason, but the stats will be theirs.